The discussion of the appeal to the TAR by Adusbef, Federconsumatori and 10 shareholders of Banca Popolare di Milano against the Bank of Italy regulation of 2016 June 12 on the transformation of cooperative banks into joint-stock companies was postponed to 9 February 2015. In particular, explains Adusbef's lawyer Lucio Golino, the appeals of consumer associations and some Bpm shareholders will be discussed directly on the merits in February.
In these hours the Tar should have ruled on the request for suspension of the measure, but all the plaintiffs of the appeals, except some shareholders of Ubi Banca and other cooperative banks, have asked the judges to go directly to the judgment on the merits on 10 February, renouncing then to request the suspension order. Three legal sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. In particular, it was decided to waive the suspension on the question of constitutionality, which concerns the adoption by the government of the instrument of the decree law in the absence - according to the applicants - of the conditions of necessity and urgency.
In the afternoon, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court examined the request for suspension of the Bank of Italy provision presented by Ubi. In this case, however, the constitutionality of the entire provision was not at issue, but a more technical aspect: the lawyers of the Ubi shareholders asked that the administrative judges already rule on the issue linked to the Bank of Italy regulation in today's hearing regarding the prohibition of setting up a holding company, in cooperative form, to which control of Banca Spa is assigned.
Also in this case, the Tar did not grant the suspension, not recognizing the conditions of urgency and postponed the judgment on the merits of the matter to February 10, 2016, as in the case of the other appeals.
For its part, Bankitalia had presented a defense brief in which it maintains that the new regulation implementing the reform adapts the Italian legislation to the rules already in force in various European countries.
The reform desired by the Renzi government obliges cooperative banks with assets exceeding 8 billion to abandon the principle of per capita voting and transform themselves into joint stock companies by December 2016.
